Jump Firedancer Proposes Uncapping Solana Blocks After Alpenglow

- Jump Crypto's Firedancer team proposes uncapping Solana's compute unit limits to boost scalability. - The proposal sparks debate over network performance versus centralization risks. On September 28, 2025, Firedancer, Jump Crypto’s specialized Solana client team, proposed removing the fixed compute unit (CU) limits for blocks. The initiative, named SIMD-0370, aims to capitalize on Solana’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade by calling for dynamic block scaling based on validator hardware capabilities to foster a "flywheel effect." This approach would incentivize well-capitalized block producers to upgrade their hardware to process larger blocks, which in turn would drive competition among validators and enhance the Solana blockchain's overall performance and capacity. The Firedancer team argues that Solana's current fixed block CU limit of 60 million—and the planned increase to 100 million—might hinder innovation and limit network growth. By allowing hardware advancements to dictate block size limits, validators could maximize transaction inclusion and scalability. The Alpenglow upgrade is key to this proposal as it introduces a skip-vote mechanism to mitigate potential disruptions caused by varying hardware capabilities, allowing less powerful validators to automatically abstain from voting on oversized blocks. The proposal has sparked debate within the Solana community. Critics, such as Roger Wattenhofer, head of research at Anza, caution against a possible "hardware arms race," warning that only larger, well-funded operators might afford the necessary upgrades. This could sideline smaller validators and concentrate network power. Stability is also a concern, as an advanced block producer might process massive blocks that other validators cannot handle. Despite these criticisms, Wattenhofer aligns with the proposal’s aim to remove compute limits, suggesting that proper safeguards could mitigate the associated risks. Meanwhile, Solana’s governance framework is currently reviewing the proposal, which builds upon the foundation of the widely supported Alpenglow upgrade that also reduced block finality times. As of 19:13 UTC on September 28, Solana (SOL) was trading at $205.76. According to CoinMarketCap on September 28, this reflects a 2.08% increase over the past 24 hours. This price movement could be a market reaction to the ongoing network optimizations.